


secrets we hid in the night

by LtTanyaBoone



Category: Bomb Girls
Genre: F/F, Internalized Homophobia, reference to abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-30
Updated: 2013-01-30
Packaged: 2017-11-27 13:18:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/662438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LtTanyaBoone/pseuds/LtTanyaBoone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gladys has a secret and so does Kate, and Betty knowing about one but not the other might end up destroying their friendship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	secrets we hid in the night

**Disclaimers:** Bomb Girls, the rights to the show and its characters do not belong to me. No money was made by this.  
 **Spoilers:** up to and including 2x04 "Guests of Honour"  
 **Pairing:** Betty McRae & Gladys Witham friendship, Betty McRae/Kate Andrews romantic pairing  
  
 **Warnings:** (internalized) homophobia (of the extent we have already seen on the show); references to abuse

* * *

It starts when Kate has been gone for three weeks, and the heartbreak is starting to dull enough for Betty to notice her surroundings again.

It’s only then that she fully realizes how Gladys is still treating her the same way she used to, before she found out. That the other woman doesn’t make any comments or suddenly feels awkward undressing around her.

And then she starts chatting up Ivan, and the little rich princess doesn’t seem relieved. Anyone else Betty knows that ever had an idea about what is wrong with her had breathed a sigh of relief when she faked an interest in a boy for their benefit for a while. Just to put them at ease, to make them back off, to keep them from really finding out that their suspicions are true.

Gladys doesn’t seem relieved. She’s concerned. And Betty thinks that maybe she’s worried about her well-being, her feelings. But the thing is, Betty doesn’t have a choice, really. She’s got to convince people that she’s normal. That she likes boys and dates them and doesn’t feel butterflies in her stomach when she looks at the picture she still has of Kate, or wishes that the singer tonight would be her, just so that Betty could hear the redhead’s lovely voice again.

The thing is, Gladys Witham is a little princess that has no idea about what life is like for most people. She’s pampered and spoiled and her hands are still soft. She’s never had to huddle up in bed with her siblings because it was so damn cold and freezing and you had no money for coals so that you had to worry about freezing to death in your sleep. She’s never felt faint from hunger. Not Gladys Witham, the girl that hasn’t even cashed her paychecks yet, because she doesn’t need the damn money.

So why on earth does Gladys not run for her life, now that she knows about Betty’s secret? There is no logical explanation, especially not after the way Kate reacted when she found out. _Disgusting_ , she called her. Surely, Gladys must be thinking the same thing. Only it doesn’t seem like it. She makes the most casual mention about Betty not loving Ivan after they break up, one that makes Betty pause as they are changing out of their street clothes, because she’s just waiting for the other girl to tell the world what a freak she is. But Gladys never does, she doesn’t say any more about it. So something must be up.

She’s at the stencil line when Betty suddenly realizes what could be the reason for Gladys being so casual about what she learned, and she almost drops the bomb she’s about to put on the hook, which makes her heart race and ask for a break to get her shaking hands back under control.

It takes her a week to draw up the courage to confront Gladys. Which is strange, because Betty’s not one to shy away from an argument, or telling people what she thinks. But this is different. She’s starting to grow fond of Gladys, to actually like her. Not the way she likes Kate. Not as much, at least. And she doesn’t want to lose her. Because even though she’s back, her and Kate aren’t exactly that close any more. Maybe because they are avoiding the 500 pound gorilla in the room. Maybe because it’s not a gorilla, but a bomb and they have to be careful to keep it from exploding.

Kate stands them up for another card game, and Gladys has a headache from the fumes at the factory, so they are in Betty’s room for a change. It’s weird, how seeing the brunette lying on her bed and staring at the ceiling as she listens to Billie’s voice carry through the thin walls makes the butterflies flutter in her stomach, but Betty blames the light, because the combination of Gladys’s hair spread out on her shawl and the bad light makes her long tresses seem almost a dark red, which of course reminds Betty of Kate’s hair-

“Betts?” Gladys’s voice cuts through her thoughts and Betty shakes her head as the other girl sits up, giving her a worried look as Betty passes her the cigarette she was smoking to let her have a drag.

“Sorry, what was that?”

“I asked if you think that maybe taking her to see a picture would cheer Kate up?” Gladys repeats her question. Betty furrows her brows, shrugging.

“Maybe, but there won’t be another showing at VicMu for a few weeks.” she points out.

“I have James’s car, we can go see one by ourselves.” Gladys reminds her and Betty’s jaw almost drops then, but she reigns it in and just stares at the other woman, looking for that little ball of anger she knows is deep inside the pit of her stomach (it never completely goes away, just grows smaller before it expands again).

“Why are you doing this?” she asks her, holding out the ashtray to Gladys before the stupid girl can manage to burn a hole into her sheets.

“Doing what?” Gladys wonders and she actually sounds confused, so confused that Betty can’t help but let out a snort.

“You _know_ what I am.” she reminds her and Gladys’s head snaps up, her dark eyes wide. “So why do you act like nothing changed?”

She watches as the princess frowns, clearly searching for words.

“Because nothing has?” she offers after a few moments, but Betty crosses her arms, telling her that’s not good enough an explanation. Because _everything_ has changed, and if Gladys wants to act like that’s not the case, then she’s even more of a bloody fool that Betty thought her to be. Gladys sighs and frowns down at the stub of the cigarette before putting it out in the ashtray and setting it on the floor.

“At least not to me.” she says, her voice softer. So soft and smooth that it reminds Betty of the silk stockings Gladys gave Kate, and how they looked on Gladys’s thighs before she pulled them off-

“You’re like me.” Betty blurts out, her own eyes widening at the words as Gladys’s head snaps up and she gets off the bed.

“ _Excuse me?_ ” she exclaims and her voice is strong again, like it always is when Gladys gets pissed off with someone.

It’s the realization that Betty had at the stencil line all those days ago. That the only reason for Gladys not to react to finding out about her would be that Gladys is the same.

“You heard me.” Betty quips, tilting up her chin a little, ready to stand her ground.

“I have a fiancé.” Gladys reminds her.

“I had a boyfriend.” Betty points out, almost telling her just what she did with Ivan in an effort to make it convincing. But as Gladys squares her shoulders, Betty remembers seeing her and James together, and how heartbroken the other girl was when she found out about her fiancé’s affair with Hazel.

“Yes, well, I love James.” she promptly says, shaking her head as she grabs her coat and purse. In hindsight, Betty doesn’t know what makes her reach out in that moment, but before she knows what she’s doing, her hand is closing around Gladys’s wrist and the other girls stares at her in shock before she yanks her arm back and stalks from Betty’s room, leaving her to close her eyes and scream at herself in her head about how stupid that was.

* * *

The day after the _events_ in her room, Gladys doesn’t come into work. At first, Betty thinks that now she’s done it, she made her run away and that now Gladys doesn’t have any reason to keep her mouth shut about what kind of freak she is.

Her hands are shaking a little and she can’t seem to breathe just deeply enough, getting dizzy from the fumes and everything. Until at tea break, Vera tells them that today is the anniversary of the death of Gladys’s brother. She overheard Carol talking to Mr Akins, because the man was ranting about little rich girls being unreliable and of course Carol had to defend her friend then, completely forgetting that the door to Akins’s office was open and Vera could hear every word.

Betty never even knew that Gladys used to have a brother. The thought of something happening to hers… She looks across the table and sees Kate stare at her cup, her hands balled into tight fists so her knuckles have turned white. Kate has two brothers God knows where, and a dead father.

“We should visit her.”

It’s a good thing Kate waits with that suggestion until they are drying themselves off from their shower, because Betty drops the towel in shock, and she doesn’t want to imagine what might have happened if Kate had said that to her at the filling station.

“What?” she squeaks, frowning at her voice and clearing her throat, but able to resist repeating it again.

“We’re her friends, I’m sure she could use someone right now.” Kate points out, putting on her dress and Betty steps into her pants, mulling it over. She’s pretty sure that Gladys has all the comfort she needs in Carol, but no one knows about what happened last night. What she accused Gladys of. Not going would seem suspicious, especially because everyone knows how close Gladys and her have gotten while Kate was away.

“I don’t think her parents will be too happy.” Betty offers a weak protest, but Kate shakes her head, saying they have to try. Which is why, almost an hour later, they are standing at the door of the damn mansion, both waiting for the other to ring the doorbell.

“Oh, for God’s sake.” Betty exclaims and reaches out, flinching at the loud gong that sounds.

It turns out that Gladys’s father is on a business trip, and her mother is “indisposed”.

“She’s probably passed out from drinking.” Gladys remarks, but it doesn’t stop her from filling a glass with whiskey and downing the contents without even flinching that much.

The first time Betty was here, she didn’t really pay attention to her surroundings, all she wanted was to get Gladys so she could help her rescue Kate. But now Kate is back with them, and Betty’s eyes wander over the expensive furniture as she feels like she can’t move without making something dirty or breaking something. It sets her teeth on edge. Or maybe that is the empty expression in Gladys’s eyes.

“Gladys, I’m so sorry.” Kate mutters softly, stepping up to her and hesitating briefly before she puts a hand on the other woman’s shoulder. Gladys flinches then and closes her eyes and Betty quickly takes the glass from her hands before she can break it. Just like that, Gladys straightens and puts on a smile, asking them if they want to come upstairs?

In all her life, Betty has never been in a bedroom like this. It makes her uncomfortably aware of the state of her own clothing. Kate’s eyes are darting around, ever-widening before she spies the collection of perfumes and scents. Gladys notices and she encourages her to go ahead, pulling Betty over to the bed. Which is strangely soft, the blonde finds out when she sits down on it.

They sit and watch Kate smell every bottle, crinkling her nose adorably at times.

“I’m sorry.” Betty mumbles after a while. She wants to add that she doesn’t mean her brother, though she is sorry for that, too. But what she’s actually apologizing for is what happened the night before. When she looks at Gladys, though, she knows she doesn’t have to say it. The other woman knows, and she gives a curt nod.

“I know.” she responds, her voice sounding hollow. And in the split second that it takes Betty to blink, Gladys’s dark eyes fill with tears and she suddenly starts crying, startling Kate so badly she almost drops the bottle she is holding.

Betty’s never been comfortable with touching other people, especially women (she always fears that she won’t be able to stop herself once she does), but as Gladys folds in on herself and presses a hand over her mouth to stifle her sobs, she reaches out and wraps her arm around the other woman, pulling her close like she used to hug her brother when he fell down while running and skinned his knee. There’s no blood to be conscious of this time, though, and as Gladys turns her face into her shoulder, Kate sits down on the woman’s other side, rubbing her back and murmuring words of comfort.

* * *

“You were right.”

Betty is trying to mend one of her dresses and Gladys is trying to get away from her parents for the evening, but with how quiet the little princess can be, Betty forgot that she has company and starts, stabbing herself with the needle and letting out a curse that makes Gladys’s eyes widen. Really, after all the time she spends with them, Betty would have thought that Gladys would eventually get used to the way she talks. Then again, she tries not to curse as much when Kate is around. Which she isn’t, because it’s choir practice night.

“Excuse me?” Betty raises an eyebrow as she mumbles around her finger, tasting blood and groaning. So much for mending her clothes for tonight.

The sight of Gladys Witham gathering her courage has to be as rare as a unicorn. Betty’s never seen one, and she’s never seen Gladys do this before, either.

“Only you weren’t, too.” she says, furrowing her brows a little and Betty almost teases her that she has to watch her facial expressions or she will get wrinkles. Something holds her back, though, and she takes her finger out of her mouth, watching her friend.

“I was right about what?” she asks, wrecking her brain as she tries to figure out what she said that could have Gladys act like this. It’s like that time her father yelled her name when he came home and between the door banging and the first steps on the stairs, Betty was shaking as she tried to recall what bad things she had done that day, what could have made him so angry- Only Gladys is not angry, if anything, she looks… confused?

“About me being…” the other woman starts, hesitating before she breathes two words and suddenly, Betty can hear the blood pounding in her ears.

“I was right?” she repeats, dumbfounded. Because she had pretty much forgotten about that already and just chalked it up to Gladys wanting to be her friend and thinking that had to mean she had to be accepting of her _perversions_.

Gladys nods mutely, shaking her head as she grabs the pack of cigarettes off Betty’s nightstand and lights up.

“Yes. Only, I’m not, not really like you.” she tells her, holding out the cigarette to Betty, who takes with a shaking hand. “I also like boys.”

Betty takes a drag as she gets up to make sure her door is closed as her brain tries to catch up.

“How’s that possible?” she asks, leaning against the wood and frowning in confusion.

Gladys shrugs, sitting up on the bed and smoothing out her skirt. “I don’t know. I just _do_.” she tells her, and if it weren’t for the months they have worked together, Betty would never detect the hint of doubt in Gladys’s voice.

It doesn’t make sense. How could anyone like both, boys and girls? They are so different, men with their hard angles and rough touches, but women are soft and comfortable and Betty gets them, understands them…

“So like, if you had to chose, between James and…” she pauses, trying to come up with an attractive movie star, but Gladys is already shaking her head.

“It would be James.” she tells her resolutely, which makes Betty raise her eyebrows. “I love James.”

“Okay.” Betty nods, tilting her head back to stare at the ceiling. “But if you didn’t have him, and you’d have to choose between... Marco and Kate?”

She hates how her voice catches a little when she says Kate’s name. She doesn’t even do it intentionally, but for Betty, all she wants in a girl, that’s Kate. And she’s heard the other girls swoon over Mr Italian, so she guesses he must be attractive. Gladys lets out a soft laugh.

“Neither.” she tells her, getting up from Betty’s bed and picking up the abandoned dress, but Betty quickly snatches it from her. She’s seen what happens when Gladys tries to mend things, and that’s a dress she’d like to wear again, thank you very much.

“Don’t worry, I won’t steal her from you.” Gladys adds, her voice gentle and Betty feels herself blushing to the roots of her hair.

 “Besides, I’ve never done anything with a woman. Aside from Carol once, when we were twelve and trying to find out what kissing felt like.” the brunette shrugs. Perhaps she should feel bad about it, but Betty is strangely relieved. Because that would have just been her kind of luck, that rich Gladys Witham actually has more experience with girls than she does.

“Yeah, me either. Except for that one time, and you know how that ended.” Betty sighs, Kate’s voice sounding in her head as she calls her _disgusting_ and a _deviant_.

She doesn’t like the look Gladys gets in her eyes then, but before the other woman can say anything, the door is shoved into Betty’s back and she lurches forward, barely catching herself.

“Hey!” she exclaims to turn around and find Kate there, furrowing her brows in surprise.

“Sorry.” the younger woman breathes, her cheeks flushed as she flops down on Betty’s bed drawing a deep breath as she lies back, just to sit up again. “What’s going on?” she asked, her eyes going back and forth between the other two women.  Betty and Gladys exchange a look before they both shake their heads and say “nothing”, but Kate’s frown says she’s not buying it, even if the redhead doesn’t press further.

* * *

It’s a cold night in at the end of 1942 when Betty walks home from visiting Edith. She’s not normally doing things like that, but the other woman forgot her shawl in the locker room and Betty offered to bring it around to her house when Mrs Corbett complained about having to do it. She likes Edith, and she likes playing with the other woman’s kids, too, though that’s something she won’t ever admit to anyone. No, the only reason she stayed for three hours was so that Edith might catch a break.

The night is clear and Betty can see the stars overhead. It makes her cross her arms and shiver a little in her coat, because she knows that it will only get colder. She’s lived on a farm long enough to know the signs of changes in weather.

They haven’t gotten much snow this winter, and Betty kind of wants some. Perhaps because it feels like at least then the cold would be worthwhile. Or perhaps because of how Kate’s eyes widened and how she smiled when it snowed three days before Christmas.

Betty shakes her head at herself and quickens her pace to get home and start thawing. By the time she reaches the house, she can’t really feel her toes any more. Thankfully, the furnace is going and the lights are still on in the hallways, other girls drinking and dancing and having a good time. Betty figures that she could get changed out of her clothing and then join them, dance a little with Kate to get the feeling back into her toes.

Only Kate isn’t around. Someone saw her disappear into her room a while ago, but at Betty’s instantly worried face, they tell her that Gladys showed up. Betty rolls her eyes and gets the bottle she keeps in her room. If she doesn’t get to dance, well, drinking’s the next best thing to warm you up, and who better to drink with than her two friends? Or, her one friend and the girl she still hasn’t gotten over.

When she opens the door to Kate’s room, though, Betty finds that bringing the alcohol was a bad idea, because the bottle slips from her hand and shatters on the floor. It makes Gladys and Kate jump apart on the bed, Kate rising, her hand going to her mouth. To her lips that just a second ago were pressed to Gladys’s, so now Betty can see the other woman’s lipstick on them.

“Betty-” Gladys starts, but the blonde has already turned around and hastens down the hall.

It turns out that seeing your friend kiss the girl you are in love with can freeze your heart and shatter it in an instant.

* * *

“It wasn’t like that.” Gladys mutters under her breath as they are standing next to each other at the filling line the next day, pouring amatol into casings. Betty would like to hit the little princess over the head with the metal can, and her grip on it tightens.

“We were just-”

“Shove it.” Betty hisses, turning around to get her can re-filled and to draw a few deep breaths. While Kate hasn’t been able to look at her at all today, Gladys keeps following her around and trying to talk to her. Only Betty can’t really hear her over the pounding of her own blood in her ears.

When she turns around, she finds Gladys standing right there, looking at her with those puppy eyes, and her hands instinctively curl into fists. She really wants to hurt Gladys. Hurt her like she hurt Betty yesterday, by kissing Kate. She had promised she would not steal her from her, she knows what Betty feels for the other woman. Betty trusted her, and Gladys went and betrayed her trust.

“Betty- Hey!”

The indignant yell makes the other girls look over as Gladys takes a stumbling step backwards.

“Girls!” Mrs. Corbett calls and walks over to them briskly and Betty knows she should not have pushed the other woman, especially not so close to the filling line. It’s just that she gets _so angry_ , and it hurts so much, and Gladys can’t just leave her the hell alone for one minute-

“What seems to be the matter here?”

“Nothing.” Gladys shakes her head quickly. “Nothing, I just, misstepped.” she tells their shift matron, and Betty can see how the older woman doesn’t believe it for one second.

“I’m not feeling too good.” she hears herself say. “I think I need to go home.”

Mrs. Corbett’s face falters briefly at that. Betty’s pretty sure the other woman can’t remember the last time Betty went home early or called in sick. To be honest, Betty herself isn’t sure when the last time she willingly let a paycheck go to waste was. She just knows she has to get out of here, out of the factory and away from Gladys who can’t take a hint, and Kate who doesn’t care at all, before she does something even more stupid.

“Go get changed, then.” the older woman sighs, motioning towards the locker room with her clipboard. Betty ducks her head and leaves, feeling the eyes of everyone else on her, though she is pretty sure she sees Mrs. Corbett give Gladys a glare as she tells the other woman to return to her station.

* * *

When Gladys is made to keep her mouth shut, she writes letters. The little rich girl has never had to take no for an answer and is not used to having her voice not get heard, to not getting her way.

It’s no surprise to Betty when she wakes up to an envelope lying just inside her door. What does surprise her is that, once she opens said door, she finds Gladys Witham leaning against the wall next to it, looking like she barely got any sleep.

“Did you read it?” she asks her. Betty holds up the still-closed envelope, and watches as Gladys’s face falls. And in what probably is the cruelest thing she has ever done, Betty takes the letter in both hands and tears it to shreds right there, her eyes glued to Gladys’s face. And seeing the hurt on it feels so damn good that she doesn’t even have to say anything, just throws the pieces to the floor and then returns to her room, closing the door and locking it.

She still sees them when she closes her eyes. Gladys and Kate on Kate’s bed, kissing, Kate’s hand twisted into the sheets. But now Betty has another image to hold onto, one to replace that haunting movie in her head with. The picture of Gladys Witham not getting what she wants for once.

* * *

“You’re an idiot, McRae.”

Betty tenses as she slowly exhales, the smoke of her cigarette rising up as she turns around. Two weeks of not talking to her at all, and she was almost getting used to it. But of course Gladys would go to the movie showing at VicMu. And of course she would come to confront her when Betty snuck out for a smoke. She should have known.

“Yeah, you must be an excellent judge of that.” she nods, giving Gladys a once-over. The other woman pauses briefly before she stalks up to Betty, getting in her face. No one ever had the guts to do that. No girl, at least. Maybe Betty is losing her touch.

“Kate asked me what it was like to really kiss someone.”

“So you volunteered to be her teacher?” Betty asks, reaching up to push at Gladys’s shoulders. It’s by far not as hard as the shove she gave her at the filling line, but Gladys takes a step back nonetheless.

“You really are stupid.” the brunette shakes her head, that damn smile on her face. Betty would like nothing better than to wipe it off, once and for all.

“No, you are stupid.” she counters instead. “You knew, Gladys. You _knew_ , and yet you still kissed her.” Betty hisses and damn, not the tears again. She’s done far too much crying lately, she hoped that she was finally done with it. But the truth is, it still hurts, hurts like hell to think of Gladys and Kate doing that with each other, when all Betty ever wanted was to kiss Kate again. But when she kissed Kate the first time, the redhead had told her how it was disgusting, how _Betty_ was disgusting. Yet she kissed Gladys, wanted to kiss Gladys, and that-

“She wanted to know how to kiss a girl.” Gladys responds, trying to keep her voice down, because they are still at VicMu. “So she could properly kiss _you_.” she adds and it suddenly feels as if someone has pulled the floor out from under Betty.

“But-” she starts and has to clear her throat so she can continue on, “but I kissed her…”

Gladys tilts her head with that soft smile and reaches out to rub her arm as Betty reaches up and wipes the tears away, tossing down her cigarette and stomping it out.

“You met her father, Betty.” Gladys reminds her softly. “And from what Kate told me, she spent a long time shutting those feelings down, and then you went and caused them to come back to the surface… She was just scared.”

Betty looks away; worrying her lip and feeling Gladys’s hand leave her arm.

“I probably shouldn’t have told you, I just didn’t want you to think…” the brunette trails off and Betty closes her eyes then. Kate must think her such a bitch now. She hasn’t spoken a single word to her since she walked in on her and Gladys, and if it was that hard for Gladys…

“Betty?” the other woman’s voice pulls her from her musings, and Betty shakes her head, drawing a breath and squaring her shoulders.

“We better get back inside. Before Mrs Corbett comes looking for us.”

Betty doesn’t miss Vera’s raised eyebros when she and Gladys walk back in together, nor does she not see her start talking to Edith when Betty sits down next to the brunette, as if the last two weeks have never happened and she hasn’t let every word Gladys spoke to her go unanswered.

But there are more important things on Betty’s mind now, and she needs the rest of the movie to wrap her mind around the fact that Kate wanted to practice kissing so she could kiss her. _Kate_ thought about kissing _her_.

* * *

Betty takes her time walking back to the boarding house. Her mind is still reeling, thoughts racing with what Gladys told her. She spends most of the time telling herself not to get her hopes up, for all she knows, Kate might have changed her mind now, after the way Betty’s been treating her the last few days. And she tries to figure out what to say, how to apologize to the redhead without giving away everything that Gladys told her. Somehow, Betty doesn’t think that Kate will be too happy with Gladys spilling the beans about her secret.

She doesn’t go to change her clothes first, knowing that once she is in her room, the courage she spend so long gathering will vanish. So she goes straight to Kate’s room. Betty raises her fist and knocks on the door. It’s quiet in the hallway; most girls are already in bed, tired from the movie that Kate didn’t want to come and see.

“Kate?” she calls her name as she knocks a second time, waiting impatiently for the other girl to open her door. Maybe she thinks that Betty is drunk and just wants a fight. Or maybe she is angry at her and doesn’t want to talk to her. What if Kate never wants to talk to her again, what if Betty ruined everything with how she reacted? She could have at least let them explain about the kiss. If she had, if she hadn’t shut down Gladys like that, she would have found out about the reason why Kate kissed their friend a lot sooner, and then Betty would never have hurt her and not been hurt for so long…

“Kate, come on.” she mutters, resting her forehead against the wood and closing her eyes as she wishes that the other girl might get up from her bed and open the door, let her in so that Betty could properly apologize to her for the way she’s been acting.

“Betty?”

At the sound of her name, Betty whirls around to find Kate standing there in her robe, clutching it close, the way she usually does when there’s a boy around.

“What are you doing?”

Betty opens her mouth but finds that she can’t get out any words, so she has to close it and swallow before she tries again.

“I wanted to talk to you.” she offers meekly and suddenly, Kate’s eyes become guarded before she shakes her head and walks past Betty to open her door.

“Kate, please.” Betty pleads, her hand shooting out to stop the other girl from closing the door in her face, instantly regretting it when Kate’s eyes dart around like those of a frightened mouse. Church mouse, that’s what Leon calls her, and Betty never realized how much that fits her, until now.

“I just want to talk. I want to, apologize.” she gathers her courage. Kate blinks, her eyes finding Betty’s and then she lets go of the door and steps aside to let the other woman in, hesitating before she closes the door after her. It doesn’t escape Betty that she remains close to it, and that she watches Betty’s every move. The anger in her stomach expands again, anger at herself, but more than that anger at Kate’s father, at how he could have treated his daughter like this, how he could reduce her to such a frightened little creature; even now that he’s dead she still thinks that everyone around her is just as bad, that they’re all out to hurt her like that.

“How was the movie?” Kate finally asks when Betty makes no move to start talking but just stands there, staring at her. She can see the redhead become more uncomfortable under her scrutiny as she starts blushing a little and Betty almost smiles at that.

“Good.” Betty nods. “It was good.” At least the few minutes of it that she actually remembers, before her mind drifted off and she went for a smoke and then had that bomb dropped on her by Gladys-

Okay, come on McRae, don’t be a chicken. You can do this. You don’t have to tell her all about what Gladys said; just that it was a harmless kiss. That you overreacted. That you’re sorry and want to be friends again. Just open your mouth and-

“I’m sorry.” – “I am sorry.”

They both stare at each other in surprise before they break out into soft smiles, Betty shaking her head as Kate bites her lip.

“I’m sorry I reacted like that.” Betty is the first to continue. “I shouldn’t have- Gladys told me you were just trying to learn, to figure it out. Like we all have. I shouldn’t have thought- I’m sorry.”

“I shouldn’t have kissed Gladys.” Kate softly says, crossing her arms as she takes two steps towards Betty before hesitating and turning to go to her bed, sitting down on it stiffly, her eyes glued to the floor. “I didn’t know, before- I thought, because of James…” she trailed off, frowning slightly before she shakes her head.

“Yeah, me, too.” Betty admits and Kate looks up at her, her eyes so wide that Betty’s sure next thing they’ll fall out. Betty just shrugs, as if trying to tell her that she doesn’t know everything about these kinds of things. They smile at each other again, Kate’s smile less timid than before, and Betty can feel another crack in her battered heart mend. She slowly walks over to the bed and sits down next to Kate, drawing a slow breath as her heart continues to hammer away in her chest. This is the closest they have been in weeks, and she didn’t realize just how much she yearned to be close to Kate again.

“Betty?”

“Huh?”

“Can… can we try again? Kissing?”

Betty turns her head to stare at her, but Kate is so impossibly close that it’s hard to concentrate.

“You sure you want to?” she asks, because she has to. Because if Betty kisses Kate again and Kate still doesn’t like it, if she decides that kissing Betty is still disgusting, then Betty isn’t sure if she could take that.

But Kate nods mutely, and Betty opens her mouth to tell her that maybe, that would be better another time, but the redhead leans in then and suddenly, her lips are on Betty’s and, _oh they are so soft_. Her hands clench into the comforter, so she doesn’t reach up and grabs Kate’s hair to pull her close. No, Betty forces herself to remain still, her eyes wide, not daring to do anything until Kate leans back, watching her. Betty swallows and blinks, the fog in her head clearing a little.

“Did I do it wrong?” Kate inquires, her eyes wide. “Gladys said-”

Her hand shoots up before Betty can stop it and she pulls Kate in for another kiss, to make her shut up, because the last thing she wants to hear about now is what Gladys says about kissing, what Gladys had to say about Kate kissing her. It’s an image that Betty wants gone from her mind, wants it gone for good, and Kate’s soft lips might prove just the right remedy.

She doesn’t know exactly how far the two women got, how much Gladys told Kate, but she can’t resist moving her lips against Kate’s as she lets go of her head, and the redhead lets out a surprised sound at that, but her hand touching Betty’s arm curls into the sleeve of her blouse instead of pushing her away, on the contrary, Kate is leaning in even more, tilting her head and opening her mouth-

“Wow.” is all that she can say when the kiss finally ends. Betty finds herself grinning stupidly but tries to stop it, to see what Kate thinks first. Maybe she didn’t like it; maybe she doesn’t think it was fantastic.

But Kate is trying rather hard to stop herself from smiling so hard that it looks almost painful and she ducks her head and rests her forehead against Betty’s, her hand finding that of the blonde. Betty never held hands with another girl before, just like she never really kissed one, and it’s exciting to see Kate’s hand in hers when she looks down in her lap. The butterflies in her stomach are doing summersaults and Betty feels like she’s been pouring amatol for far too long, lightheaded and dizzy.

“I really, really like you, Kate.” she whispers, unable to stop herself from voicing the thought racing through her head.

“I really, really like you, too, Betty.” Kate responds, her voice so full of happiness that it makes Betty’s grin grow before she leans in for another kiss.

_fin._


End file.
